Aussie Christmas Fun – December 2019
Community Christmas festivities were in full swing during our two week visit to Mandurah, Australia. And most of the activities were free, an added bonus!
The city installed large-scale decorations along the foreshore and programmed the bridge lights to display festive colors. One evening we also enjoyed the annual Christmas fireworks show on the water’s edge.
Mandurah Forum, the largest shopping mall in the city, displayed shell and ocean-themed Christmas decorations. Santa’s chair in the special photo area even looked liked a large white shell. Santa, however, did not stray from his traditional red attire with white trim plus black boots and belt. One of the city residents told us that in years past the mall Christmas decorations were the customary snowflakes, Santas, and ornament-filled artificial evergreen trees. And this year some of the community members complained about the significant change to white trees with shells, seahorses, and starfish.
We watched the local Christmas parade, which included many types of vehicle-pulled floats, dance groups, marching bands, and community groups. It was great entertainment to see curb-sitting children happily catch candy tossed by parade participants. And they were even excited to accept toothbrushes from parade walkers behind a float representing one of the Mandurah dentists.
Many of the homeowners along the boat canals decorated their homes with Christmas lights, some of which had an Australian twist to Santa and his sleigh. (See if you can find the Aussie-style Santa sleigh and 3 different Down Under sets of ”reindeer” in the pictures below.) Like many Mandurah visitors and residents, we went on the Christmas light canal cruise and it was great fun!
The Salvation Army Christmas concert featured the women’s choir and the symphonic band. As part of the audience, we were given lyric booklets and encouraged to sing along during the 15+ songs. Our favorite song of the evening was the Aussie version of the “Twelve Days of Christmas.” Lyrics: On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me twelve parrots prattling, eleven numbats nagging, ten lizards leaping, nine wombats working, eight dingoes digging, seven possums playing, six broglas dancing, five kangaroos, four cute koalas, three kookaburras, two pink galas, and one emu up a gum tree.
Santa made a brief appearance and children acted out the story of Jesus’ birth before a heavy downpour, unfortunately, brought an abrupt end to the program.
